A while back I wanted to finish the following: my novel A Viking on the Subway, a script adaptation of Viking, revise my collection Horseshoe so that it is a novel-in-stories, and then do a script for it too. I’ve finally finished all that, and so I’m turning to the next project. I’ve been thinking that I want to write something that comes from my students at St. John’s University for my students at St. John’s University. What I mean by that is that I think all of us here at SJU have a unique opportunity to meet and talk with people from all over the world who have all sorts of backgrounds.

Yes, we do have cornfields.

Even for those who are from the city, I often find that each student’s neighborhood, block, or building may not be very diverse. In other words, a lot of us tend to hang out with people who are like us. For this book, which might involve a road trip from NYC to my home state of Indiana, I’d like to draw on all the chances I have to see beyond stereotypes, write a story that flies past those stereotypes, and hopefully tell an interesting story that my students past, present, and future would enjoy.

My initial impression was that most of my students not from the United States wouldn’t have even heard of “Indiana.” After all, did you know that Cote d’Ivoire is a country or that the Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia? Perhaps you do, but I’m a bit embarrassed to admit, I’m not sure I did when I showed up here to teach writing. For the most part, my students nailed it with “farms” being the most common answer. I’m not quite sure where all the tumbleweeds came from. :)

On this edition of Torg Stories, you hear chapters two, three, and four of the novel The Coach's Wife. “In his novel The Coach’s Wife, William Torgerson has written one of the best books about basketball and coaching I’ve ever read. He’s also written a love story so complicated and wonderful it will have book clubs talking about it for many years.” - […]

Chapter 1 of the novel The Coach's Wife. The story focuses on the subjects of love and basketball in Indiana. A man without a her is a man without hope. So believes Coach Zuke who has returned to his hometown of Horseshoe, Indiana to be the head basketball coach. Zuke wants to meet a woman. It's not long before possibilities emerge: his girlfriend […]